Prototype IBM DemiDiskette drive

[Chuck Guzis]

On 08/22/2018 10:47 AM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:

> The 3.25" ALMOST made it to market.  It was used on the "Seequa
> Chameleon 325".  So technically, it made it to market.
> Dysan (3.25") did not want to go with a hard shell.  The 3.25" had a
> metal center hub, but was the same jacket material as 5.25 and 8 inch.
> Besides shirt pocket dimensions, Dysan reasoned that the winner would be
> the one that had software availability.  So, they bet the company
> (literally) on software publishing in 3.25".  For a brief time, you
> could have purchased most of the major software packages on 3.25" disk! 
> Dysan software publishing had more titles than Lifeboat.  When that did
> NOT win the war, Dysan never really recovered. The 3.25" drives and
> diskettes that I have came from MicroPro (Wordstar).

I believe that's my photo of a 3.25" floppy over on Wikipedia.  Still
have a couple of drives and boxes of media to go with them.

I think most owners of the Chameleon 325 swapped out the drives for
conventional 3.5" ones eventually.   The interface is the same.

I recall seeing some 3.25" drives back in the day on one of the shelves
of Haltek (not Halted) marked "Shugart Venture".   A venture that got
nowhere.

I do miss the old Haltek.

--Chuck